The Unchanging Core of Brazilian State Capitalism, 1985-2015

• In Event: State Capitalism, Brazilian Style

Abstract

This paper describes the basic mechanics of state capitalism under democracy in Brazil, and the powerful tools that it offers to policymakers, as well as the equally important constraints that inhibit change. The paper advances two central arguments. The first is that state capitalism in Brazil is much broader than the state’s role in business alone. State capitalism is not merely, or even centrally, about the degree to which the state owns firms. Indeed, it is the very breadth of the state’s role across multiple dimensions of the economy that has helped to sustain state capitalism against challengers. The second, related argument, is that there are important interlocking aspects of these multiple dimensions that help to explain their continuity overall, even under democracy: between macro level policies, between fiscally oblique instruments in micro polices, and between taxation, labor, pension and social policies.

Author

• Matthew M Taylor, School of International Service, American Univ.